Western Stars (2019) – Bruce Springsteen

Western Stars is late, late Bruce, and it’s as steeped in country as I’ve ever heard him. The moment I first saw him sing it in his film of the same name, I immediately added it to my music collection. I could see why he was so inspired by it that he turned it into the title track of his 19th studio album and made a film around it.

It sounds epic and unfolds like a movie on the big screen. The story is intense and paints such rich images of Americana. The music, with that slide guitar, resembles a snake slithering across the vast, desolate desert.

A coyote with someone’s Chihuahua in its teeth skitters ‘cross my veranda in the night

This is the Bruce I always like, where he is furthest removed from leaning into modern politically correct themes and excess sentimentality. He’s getting back to what he does best, kicking up some dirt and getting lost in where it all started.

Way back he was writing about circuses, carousels, boardwalks, cars, women, family and Vietnam vets, and now he’s venturing into an even earlier time that still echoes as the wind blows the tumbleweeds and desert dust.

When the western stars shone brightly, guiding the cowboys, this song pays tribute to them, but through the life of an ageing Hollywood actor in the twilight of his career:

Once I was shot by John Wayne, yeah, it was towards the end

Here’s to the cowboys, riders in the whirlwind

While there’s much less of the latter-day Bruce music that resonates with me after his magnificent The Rising (2002), Western Stars is one of the exceptions, showing glimpses of the singer-songwriter brilliance that made him a global music phenomenon.

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Snippets from Wikipedia:

The album was a chart success in the United States – where it became Springsteen’s 20th top-10 album – and abroad. It was also met with widespread acclaim from critics, who found the music elegiac and evocative of the American West.

Upon announcing the album in April 2019, he called it “a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements“, with a press release characterizing it as about a “range of American themes, of highways and desert spaces, of isolation and community and the permanence of home and hope“.

A documentary film (Western Stars) marked Springsteen’s directorial debut and features a full performance of the album.

[Verse 1]
I wake up in the morning, just glad my boots are on
Instead of empty in the whispering grasses
Down the Five at Forest Lawn
On the set, the makeup girl brings me two raw eggs and a shot of gin
Then I give it all up for that little blue pill
That promises to bring it all back to you again

[Chorus]
Ride me down easy, ride me down easy, friend
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

[Verse 2]
Here in the canyons above Sunset, the desert don’t give up the fight
A coyote with someone’s Chihuahua in its teeth skitters ‘cross my veranda in the night
Some lost sheep from Oklahoma sips her Mojito down at the Whiskey Bar
Smiles and says she thinks she remembers me from that commercial with the credit card

[Chorus]
Hell, these days there ain’t no more, now there’s just again
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

[Verse 3]
Some days I take my El Camino, throw my saddle in and go
East to the desert where the charros, they still ride and rope
Our American brothers cross the wire and bring the old ways with them
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

[Verse 4]
Once I was shot by John Wayne, yeah, it was towards the end
That one scene’s bought me a thousand drinks, set me up and I’ll tell it for you, friend
Here’s to the cowboys, riders in the whirlwind
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again
And the western stars are shining bright again

[Chorus]
Tonight the riders on Sunset are smothered in the Santa Ana winds
And the western stars are shining bright again
C’mon and ride me down easy, ride me down easy, friend
‘Cause tonight the western stars are shining bright again

[Outro]
I woke up this morning just glad my boots were on

References:
1. Western Stars – Bruce Springsteen